the day the floodlights died
Posted: April 2nd, 2012, 7:16 am
capitalism like Sisyphus
almost made it to the top
but just like the mighty Babe
one day, the baseball he had driven
into the power alley hundreds of times
as two frantic outfielders converged,
the hardball rattling around the bottom
of the left-centerfield fence, the Babe
chugging around second, arms churning
like an overweight locomotive, his cap
flying off into the infield dirt as he always
barreled safely into third.........now
that ball was waiting in the third baseman's
glove as the Babe pulled up ten feet from the bag
and walked in unceremoniously to be tagged out.
no slide, no cheering fans, no glory, the one time
Sultan of Swat now just another third out
civilization unlike America's pastime never heard
the Bronx cheers, never heard the murmurs
from the Bleachers that the old Babe had lost
a step or two, as people starved, diseased
impoverished, bewildered and foreclosed, Never
came a cry that maybe it was time to hang up
the old spikes.
almost made it to the top
but just like the mighty Babe
one day, the baseball he had driven
into the power alley hundreds of times
as two frantic outfielders converged,
the hardball rattling around the bottom
of the left-centerfield fence, the Babe
chugging around second, arms churning
like an overweight locomotive, his cap
flying off into the infield dirt as he always
barreled safely into third.........now
that ball was waiting in the third baseman's
glove as the Babe pulled up ten feet from the bag
and walked in unceremoniously to be tagged out.
no slide, no cheering fans, no glory, the one time
Sultan of Swat now just another third out
civilization unlike America's pastime never heard
the Bronx cheers, never heard the murmurs
from the Bleachers that the old Babe had lost
a step or two, as people starved, diseased
impoverished, bewildered and foreclosed, Never
came a cry that maybe it was time to hang up
the old spikes.
